Honors in Research
Our Honors in Research program recognizes students for outstanding accomplishments in research. Students in most majors as part of the Undergraduate Program in Biology and Medicine (UPBM) who have completed non-clinical research of exceptional quality with a minimum biology GPA of 2.7 may apply for candidacy during February of their senior year. Students majoring in clinical and translational sciences are the exception to the use of clinical data from patient studies. Prospective honors students will have until the first Friday in May to defend.
Candidates must have developed a novel body of work that includes publication-quality data to generate a senior thesis. In addition, candidates must successfully present and defend their senior thesis before a faculty examination committee. The senior thesis must be derived from research projects that are hypothesis-driven and non-clinical. With the exception of clinical and translational sciences majors, research projects must be non-clinical and students cannot use data from patient studies.
Upon successful completion, "Honors in Research" will be noted on transcripts, and a certificate will be mailed to student’s home addresses post-graduation.
A research thesis must be comprised of research data collected over a minimum of two semesters.
Planning the Senior Thesis
Senior thesis planning generally begins before or at the beginning of the senior year. Students should consult with both their biology major/track advisor and research mentor beforehand. In addition, students may use research obtained through independent research courses, fellowships, internships, and voluntary work to compose their senior thesis.
Data collected from other institutions outside of the University may be used to support a portion of the thesis; however, all facts and figures reported as results in the thesis must be derived by the candidate and must be part of the collaboration with their research mentor or a teaching faculty member at URochester who is overseeing the writing of the student's thesis.
A defense committee for a senior thesis consists of three URochester faculty members who work within a relevant field of study and are qualified to examine the candidate's thesis. Typically, the research mentor serves on the committee and must provide at least one to two names of teaching faculty they feel are an appropriate fit and would be willing to serve on the committee. These recommendations should be included in the application for candidacy. All recommendations require the review and approval of the candidate's biology advisor.
Thesis Defense
Once the biology advisor has approved the defense committee through the application form, and the faculty have been invited to serve on the defense committee at a mutually agreeable date, time, and location for the defense, the student should send an email to the UPBM office (biodeptugoffice@ur.rochester.edu) with this information. The UPBM office will then email the student the evaluation form. All thesis defenses must be completed by the end of the first week in May.
Candidates are encouraged to have their committees in place, a date coordinated, and a room reserved by mid-April as scheduling becomes increasingly challenging toward the end of the semester.
Senior thesis papers should be a minimum of 20 pages in length and written as scientific papers using supporting text, diagrams, figures, and adequately noted references. The specific formatting of the paper should be agreed upon by the student and their defense committee. Candidates must provide copies of their thesis to each committee member and the UPBM office at least one week before the thesis defense is scheduled. Failure to comply may result in the cancellation of the defense.
Students should prepare a 20-minute presentation and be prepared to answer questions during an oral examination. If the committee agrees, the seminar may be open to guests; however, the oral examination will be closed. At the conclusion of the thesis defense, the student should either email or hand-deliver their completed evaluation form to the UPBM office.